Wilmette 2017 budget approved following final review of public safety staffing

Kathy Routliffe / Pioneer Press

Wilmette village trustees approved the village’s $72.6 million 2017 budget when they met Nov. 22, but not before hearing a primer from Assistant Village Manager Michael Braiman on the village's cost cutting measures, and its public safety staffing policies.

Wilmette village trustees approved the village’s $72.6 million 2017 budget when they met Nov. 22, but not before hearing a primer from Assistant Village Manager Michael Braiman on the village's cost cutting measures, and its public safety staffing policies. (Kathy Routliffe / Pioneer Press)

Wilmette village trustees approved the village's $72.6 million 2017 budget when they met Nov. 22, but not before hearing a primer from Assistant Village Manager Michael Braiman on the village's cost-cutting measures, and its public safety staffing policies.

As approved, the budget features a property tax levy increase of 4.97 percent, and a jump in the village gas tax from one to four cents per gallon.

The tax hikes will largely help pay for $2 million in road improvements and repairs, which are part of a $12.9 million capital works program.

Within that number sits $2.6 million in sewer projects, $1 million for water system projects, $3.5 million on engineering projects (including the road projects), $4.9 million in bond-financed facility work like repairing the village hall roof and its public works yard, plus $853,000 to replace four police squad cars, 3 public works vehicles, two fire department vehicles and a document management project.

In addition to the spending, the budget calls for $74.04 million in revenue.

Trustees and staff have worked on the budget, which is higher than the approved $64.4 million 2016 budget largely because of capital projects, since August and have held five public meetings to discuss revenue and budget plans.

Only Trustee Ted McKenna voted against passing the budget. He said Nov. 28 that he did so to say that "we still have more to do" on long-term budget planning, especially about public safety salaries, which he said comprise the largest share of village salary requirements. Those in turn make up 67 percent of the village's $44.3 million general fund spending, according to Braiman and the budget document.

"We need to have a more community-based discussion about expectation levels" on public safety staffing levels, he said.

Braiman's presentation, much of it generated by McKenna's concerns, stated that Wilmette's full-time staff now sits at 194, the lowest it's been since at least 2007.

Braiman also called on Fire Chief Mike McGreal and Police Chief Brian King to defend their staffing levels. Both departments employ 44 sworn staff, and the levels are determined not by the village's geography or population, but by the minimum number of officers or firefighters necessary to serve residents and keep employees safe, Braiman said. In the fire department, that's a daily minimum of 11 sworn staff, he said; the police department requires a minimum of four officers and one supervisor on the streets each shift, plus a school police officer and a detective division.

In both departments, the numbers allow staff to respond to multiple service calls at once, he said, adding, "Our decisions are based on the best data possible."

When Trustee Carol Ducommun, the board's finance committee head, asked if the village had considered any kind of consolidation with other communities, King and McGreal said the departments already coordinate with other departments on issues like fire calls and major crime investigations.

Village President Bob Bielinski said that "there's a certain element of community identity" involved when communities provide their own public safety staff.

Before the vote, Ducommun said she hoped residents would understand the challenges the board and village staff faced as they crafted the budget: "I feel pretty proud that we've got almost $13 million in capital expenditures in the budget."

Trustee Cameron Krueger agreed, saying, "I think the investment we're making in roads, sewers, infrastructure and equipment is both necessary and maybe too long deferred."